As we do every year, a look back at some of our favorite stories over the 2010 year.

The Best of Motoaus.com 2010

A look back at a few highlights of the 2010 year for Motoaus.com.

With the global financial crisis in full swing, motorcycle sales were down, and race grids were smaller. Manufacturers didn’t release as many new models as we had become used to, with several of the big 4 not updating in the usual 2 year pattern. MotoGP and World Superbike turned on a great year though, with close racing. A brace of motorcycle shows around the world launched enough new bikes to keep us wishing we had a bigger garage.

Click on the images to see the associated story.

We kicked off the year with the Gold Coast Motorcycle Expo, with the usual array of new bikes and promo girls. The Gold Coast event included a PWC (jetski) section, the river behind the expo a showcase for some awesome freestyling jetskiers.

With the popular Superbike Supply Shootouts buried – culprits not named – Morgan and Wacker stepped up and ran its popular once a year All Bike drag meet.

We took a look at some of the bikes and bike shops in the Tokyo motorcycle precinct of Ueno. Lots of funny signs and funky bikes.

It won the World Superbike championship with Max onboard, the Aprilia RSV4 won our hearts on the road. Ferocious, snarling V4 engine inside a taut precise chassis makes for a racetrack weapon. It also can turn country roads into timewarp tunnels.

Strike sent us a brace of electronic goodies to try out, and although we found the GPS handy, we loved the Scala Rider G4 intercom sets. Never having tried on board bike to bike chat, we had loads of fun. Highly recommended.

Motoaus ran a number of lighthearted stories this year, riding back in 1970s may well have been at a slower pace than today, but we remember it for all the good reasons.

Because everyone needs a 1200cc dirtbike, Moto Guzzi created a BMW challenging adventure soft roader, the Stelvio. We sampled the up spec Stelvio NTX version. Like all Moto Guzzi’s we’ve ridden, we loved it.

The 2010 MotoGP season was a ripper, but not if you were a Rossi fan. Jorge Lorenzo lifted the title, aided in no small way by Valentino Rossi breaking his leg early in the season. Casey Stoner started the year with an impressive string of crashes, but came back strongly with enough wins to mute his critics. 2011, with the Rossi/Ducati, Stoner/Honda and Jorge/Yamaha combos will be fascinating. We hope.

Harley Davidson gave us a Road King to try out, and what better way than to traverse the back roads for Sydney to the Gold Coast. Bec clocked up the miles and the pictures on the King of the Road.

The nuts at Nitro Circus are a publicity machine, releasing this awesome set of skydiving shots, leaping out of planes holding various implements. Why? Why not. Plus it’s a good way to promote their upcoming 2011 Australian tour.

Probably the most talked about new bike release of 2010, Kawasaki set tongues wagging when it announced a lighter, 200 horsepower 2011 ZX10-R. On paper it looks the goods, time will tell if it can match current litre king, the BMW S1000RR, Chris Vermuelen intends to try in World Superbike 2011.

Closing out the year of shows was the 2010 Melbourne Motorcycle Expo. A full field of manufacturers had lots of shiney new bikes on display. Kawasaki launched it’s ZX10-R, the W800 retro, and the faired Z1000. Ducati showed off it’s muscle bike entry, the Diavel. We took lots of photos.

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Thank you for the support over the 2010 year, Motoaus.com intends to take a big step up for 2011, bigger and better than ever. We hope you will join us again.